I started a campaign on the premise of building a new kingdom when my 1st was born…

Good stuff Shadow!

The Players will have run characters in various incarnations from 1st to 21st level (yep, I’m taking them Epic next level) over 5+ years. It is an Incursion Campaign, as they battle the Githyanki Lichqueen. The Queen is not so much interested in taking over the world, as she is in recovering a series of 6 heartshards that contain the broken soul of a god. Once collected, she will suck the soul out of them and become a goddess herself. The heroes have 4 heartshards, she has two. Currently they are starting an all out fight to defend their home-base city in a Minas Tirith style epic battle. Once they defeat the githyanki, they will realize that the problem with battling a Lichqueen is that she will never stop coming after them, and they need to take the fight to her if they truly want to stop her mad quest.

If successful in defeating her, and recovering all the heartshards, the god’s soul will be reunited, and reborn as an infant. if the heroes agree, the old pantheon will grant the heroes immortality (tied to the infant god) to raise and protect the infant god how they choose. Their characters will become demigods/saints themselves eventually, and if I ever do a future campaign, they may have the option of worshipping their old characters.

But first they are going to have to fight an advanced half-dragon terrasque (the Lichqueen’s Doomsday Device)

I want to give the players custom T-shirts for the campaign end.

Aside: The raising the infant idea came because I have had two children myself during the span of the campaign.

Here’s the thing Trask, I don’t see how a downer campaign, however realistic or likely logic wise, is going to reward your players for having invested all this time in your game… unless your group, as a whole, prefers realistic tropes to heroics ones.

I can only speak for my group, but it’s obvious that my friends come to my place on Friday nights, tired, sometimes grumpy about the job (we are a 30s-40s group) to

a) Relax and down a few drinks with friends
b) Get back at the world by kicking some serious a$$es

If I gave them a downer ending I’d probably be offered to take a break at DMing.

However Trask, I would start a High Level campaign with just that! All PCs are leaders that get ousted or get slandered by this hidden enemy with Mind Control powers (or worse, the whole world gets Amnesia about who the PCs were) and then start the quest with our powerful but destitute heroes having to either start again or seek out the BBEG.

Trask

So cool!

It has a nice unifying theme.

Jon

Woot Inspiration finally struck at lunch time and tomorrow’s game has a chance of actually being.. like… good!

So far, interest remains high, and I have a high player investment in the game. So for now, the game moves at its normal pace. As a GM though, I quietly work on the end session ideas, so that should interest start to wane, I will be ready.

It becomes a rediscovery of your old loved character with a grand closure.

DNAPhIl: Good luck in your end game… closure is probably what is hardest to do because by the time you get there, everyone’s interest in the game is waning…